Now that Carmelo Anthony is officially on the shelf until Sunday, the question is: What’s next?

Anthony’s right elbow injury, officially termed a bruise, may or may not get better with rest this week. Nuggets coach George Karl says the injury is tendinitis. Anthony admitted he has bone spurs in both elbows as well, but the right one, his shooting arm, is giving him major problems.

He stood before the media prior to Monday night’s game in a gray suit, hands in his pockets.

“Over the last week, it got worse and worse,” Anthony said. “Every time it gets hit, it gets worse. I feel it right now, and my hands are in my pockets.”

The plan is rest and treatment, with Anthony hopefully returning for Sunday’s game at New York. Anthony did a round of treatment Monday morning and again before tipoff. He’s not sure if the six-day rest-and-treatment strategy will work.

“I don’t know,” Anthony said. “I’m going to try it and see what happens from there.”

Anthony insists surgery is not an option. His agent, Bill Duffy, who was in on the decision to shut down Anthony, could not be reached for comment. Everyone around the forward could see he wasn’t playing like himself and took the liberty of telling him so. Calls and text messages poured into Anthony’s cellphone after his 10-point game on 3-of-13 shooting against Phoenix last Saturday night.

“I got tired of hearing the phone calls,” Anthony said. “Friends, brother, family, agent, doctors. It’s a lot of people. They said they don’t want me to mess around and have this thing keep stalling out the whole year, because this can be something. If I keep getting it hit, it can linger throughout the whole year.

“When you’re looking at it on the outside looking in, you see more things than I probably would see out there on the court. So a lot of people just recommended me taking some time off.”

J.R. Smith could see Anthony wasn’t right from his courtside seat. Karl could see it on film.

Duffy was in Phoenix and saw a shell of Anthony. Karl said he spoke to Duffy after the game about resting the Nuggets forward. Team doctors got in the conversation, and the decision was made.

“It’s really been hurting him since the beginning of the season,” Smith said. “He’s just been fighting through it. Him being the great player that he is, he’s been able to get the job done. But the last couple of games, he looked like he was forcing a little bit, but that’s what we all would do.”

Said Karl: “It’s a tough call because he wants to play. He’s still a good player, but he’s not playing to what we know he can play to.”

Karl started Smith in place of Anthony on Monday and could do the same tonight in Portland and Friday against Philadelphia. He said the team is equipped to handle a few games without Anthony and prefers not to panic given the Nuggets’ solid start to the season.

“We’re in a good place,” Karl said. “We just have to rally around the circumstances that we’ve been dealt. We’re good enough to win games without him. Getting him back healthy would be a celebration.”

WASHINGTON — Thirty games into the 82-game NHL season, and nearly six weeks after the Matt Duchene trade, Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic discussed the state of his team before Tuesday’s 5-2 loss at the Washington Capitals.